


Opposites attract

by DangerRollins



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Falling In Love, Friendship/Love, Idiots in Love, M/M, Teacher Negan (Walking Dead), fluff kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 18:42:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerRollins/pseuds/DangerRollins
Summary: Negan realizes he wants to marry Rick.





	Opposites attract

They probably shouldn't be together. They probably don't belong together. They should probably reconsider this whole dating thing, but it's kind of a little bit too late for that.

Negan had never been into the quiet types, and he'd certainly never been into guys either, but there was something about Rick that intrigued him. The guy was as prude as a prude could be, uptight as shit, overly organized, too enthusiastic at times and under enthusiastic when it really counted, had to be in charge of everything all the time, stubborn as a god damn bull, always overthinking and overanalyzing and never willing to break rules or just go with the flow. Usually, Negan avoided those kinds of assholes like they had some kind of plague, but somehow, prissy Ricky had managed to get Negan wrapped around his little finger before he could even think about dipping the fuck out.

Rick had always hated the loud, obnoxious, overly confident, crude, rude, all too smooth guys, but somehow this one, though seemingly no different than the rest, had managed to slip through the cracks of the walls he'd built up around his heart and made him fall in love in an incredibly short (In his opinion) amount of time. Negan was explosive, an enigma Rick could have never even managed to make up in his head, and he was oozing confidence, radiating with it, even. He was wild, crazy, and just too fucking much most times, but somehow, he was lovable.

They'd met in a less than convenient way, Rick having been called to Carl's school because he'd gotten into yet another fight with Ron Anderson. Rick had been getting calls from the school so frequently that he'd given the number its own ringtone, his eyes rolling toward the back of his skull as he answered it.

He wasn't surprised. Another fight. He was in the car before the call had even ended.

When he got to the school, he discovered that he'd be having a meeting with the gym teacher, instead of the principal, and he thought that was weird, but he brushed it off. Apparently, the guy had wanted to speak to Rick personally. Rick figured that couldn't be good, but he just wanted to get it over with, so, he hightailed it to the gym.

When Rick got there, he knocked on the office door and heard a long whistle. Figuring that meant he could come in, he opened the door, only to slam it shut once again. The guy inside had been in the middle of rubbing one out.

He stood outside, blushing furiously and trying to decide if he should just leave, or if he should stay and talk about what his son had done. The choice was taken away from him when the man swung the door open, grinning largely at him and ushering him in. "Sorry, man. Gotta get it when I can, you know?"

"Isn't that—Can't you—I don't—"

"No class this period, no kiddies around." He waved it off as he sat back down in his chair and propped his feet up on the desk. He gestured for Rick to sit before picking up a tennis ball and tossing it between his hands.

He watched as Rick gingerly took a seat across from him and let out a long sigh. This looked like the type of parent who'd waltz in and swear up and down that their angel child hadn't done a damn thing wrong.

"I'm Negan. You're...?" Negan had never been good with remembering names.

"Rick."

"Right...Rick." Negan liked the way it sounded rolling off his tongue. "Let's cut to the chase, Rick. That little shit you call a son got into a fight during my class." Negan's swearing caught Rick off guard, but he tried his best to ignore it. "Now, I can't say I'm against a bit of violence. In fact, I believe, sometimes it's just god damn necessary. Sometimes, you've just gotta throat punch someone and be done with it—" Rick started to argue, but Negan continued talking. "But, that being said, I cannot have that shit in my class. See, when kids get into fights during my class I have to fill out a whole fucking report, send it to the office, blah blah blah, paperwork paperwork paperwork, and that is not cool. I have better things to do than sit on my ass and fill out a fuck ton of paperwork that I, frankly, couldn't give fifty damns less about."

"Better things like what? Jerking off behind your desk?" Rick says it before he thinks about it, and he blushes as soon as he realizes what he's just said. Negan is quiet, staring at him in a way he doesn't understand. He doesn't look offended, but he doesn't look not offended. He doesn't look mad, but he certainly doesn't look happy. He grins, but it doesn't reach his eyes and it sends chills down Rick's spine.

"Yes, actually." Negan mutters after a while.

"Why is it that you wanted to meet with me?" Rick questions. Negan raises his brows. "Your kid...Got...Into a fight." He speaks slowly, as if Rick is dumb, and Rick narrows his eyes. "We're not really discussing the fight, though. You're just complaining about having to do your job."

Rick feels like he should shut the hell up before he pisses the guy off, but he doesn't. He has nothing to be afraid of, he's grown and he can say what he wants. It's not like Negan can punish him, and it's not like what he's saying is untrue.

Negan chuckles as he removes his feet from the table and leans forward. "He's gonna get suspended. Probably five days—" Rick begins to argue but Negan shushes him. "It's gonna happen. It's not up to me, you know that, and you should also know what kind of punishment he's facing considering this isn't his first fucking rodeo."

"I could've gone to the office to find this out. Why am I here?" He repeats his question.

"You're here for several god damn reason, Rick. I wanted to meet the parent of that badass little firecracker, for one. Figured you'd be some tough as shit biker dude or something, instead you come in here looking like a soccer dad. It's shocking, really. I also wanted to discuss Carl and Ron's little feud. As you already know, those two fuckers hate each other. Swinging their fists at one another every chance they get, seeing who can get their balls to swell up faster, it's insane. Me personally, I get it. Carl's a good kid, despite what most of his teachers will say. He's quiet, he's smart, and he doesn't take any shit. He doesn't start any shit, he's just here to do what he's gotta do and then get the hell out. Ron is the problem—" Rick's shocked. None of Carl's teachers had ever said these things, and most would blame both kids, unwilling to choose a side. "—That little bastard is always walking around mouthing off to people, bullying those who'll allow themselves to be bullied, and just begging to get sucker punched—Which, he did." Negan smirks. "Carl doesn't take his shit which is why he hates him so much."

"If you're trying to excuse my son's behavior—"

"Rick." Negan rolls his eyes. "Punish your kid however you want. I don't care. I'm just telling you, Carl hasn't ever started anything with Ron. He's just not willing to get his ass beat to keep Ron feeling like a man...Now, those two fought for a good ten minutes—"

"Ten minutes?! It took you ten minutes to figure out they were fighting?!"

"No, I sat on the bleachers and watched the whole thing." Negan shrugged. "I watched Ron spit in your son's face and shove him down. I watched Carl hop right the fuck back up and bitch slap Ron. I watched them roll around the ground having the catfight of the century—"

"And you didn't stop it?" Rick growled, disbelief straining his voice. Negan shook his head. "Nobody gets into a fight for no reason, Rick. Those two have gotten into more thirty-second scraps than they can count on all their fingers and toes combined. They've never been able to really get their hands on one another. I'm sure you're sick of getting called up to this school, I'm sure the teachers are sick of breaking up their fights all time, and I'm sure that you'll be thanking me for this later. They fought for ten minutes, then they got tired. Carl won, he busted the kid's lip, blackened both of his beady little eyes, and probably broke his nose. You know how the fight ended? They both fell down next to each other, too fucking tired to move anymore, and when they could finally breathe again, they both got up, looked at each other with what could only be summed up as respect, and went their separate ways. They probably still hate each other, probably won't ever stop, but now, they don't have any reason to fight. There are no excuses. No 'It wasn't clear who won.' No 'it got broken up too soon' no nothing. Their shit is settled."

Rick wants to argue. He's a cop for goodness sake, he doesn't condone violence and he doesn't want his son turning into a little thug who thinks it's okay to fight people in order to get respect or to get what he wants, and it's unprofessional for Negan to allow this type of shit to go down in his class without breaking it up immediately. However, he can't deny that it makes sense.

"That's..." Rick is at a loss for words.

"You can thank me later, sweetheart." Negan winks. "I want Carl on the baseball team. Or track. I coach track too. Although, I'm more into baseball—"

"Where is this coming from? Why—"

"All that pent up aggression your son has? Yeah, that could be real useful in a sport. He's a quick runner, even quicker thinker, smart, good under pressure. He gets shit done. I just lost my star player, he quit baseball after suffering a bad injury—"

"Injury?" Rick is more than a little alarmed and it makes Negan laugh. "Yeah, those happen in sports." Rick can't help but think that Negan isn't all that persuasive. "I'd like to have Carl on my team."

"I love my son. I believe in him...But, he's never played baseball in his life. He's never played **any** sport in his life. I've seen him throw a football before and...Well, I can't imagine he'll throw a baseball any better. His hand-eye coordination isn't all that great either, so he might not be great at catching or hitting..."

"I know baseball, and I know potential star players when I see them. He seems to be an easy learner, and I'm a decent teacher. I'm willing to work with him. I'll come by your house on the weekends maybe. Help him practice before the tryouts happen."

"Why are you doing this for him? I find it hard to believe that you'd offer to help just any kid practice on your own time."

"Carl is a tough son of a bitch and I believe he's just what my team needs. Doesn't hurt that his dad's hot either."

Negan doesn't know where it comes from, he's never been attracted to another guy before in his life, but it doesn't bother him too much. Sexy knows sexy, anyways.

Rick blushes before nodding and clumsily standing from his seat. "I—I'll talk to him about it. See what he thinks. It might take some convincing."

"Great." Negan grins. "See you later, Rick."

He watches as Rick clumsily stumbles out of the room, still blushing as he does, and shakes his head.

Rick goes home that night, scolds Carl for the fight, but isn't as hard on him as he usually would be. Carl notices that and he notices how giddy and giggly his dad is, but he doesn't comment on it. He's just lucky he's not getting yelled at for all that long.

When Rick mentions Negan and what he'd said about Carl joining the baseball team, Carl immediately shuts down the idea, but Rick keeps nagging about it, and the more he thinks about it, it doesn't sound so bad. There are a few upsides to joining the team, but the one that stands out most to him is the fact that baseball just so happens to be his crush, Enid's, favorite sport. He doesn't tell his dad that's why he's willing to try it, but Rick is too excited about him actually participating in something to care why he's doing it.

So, Carl tells Negan he's willing to try it, Negan is excited as all hell to hear that, and he stays true to what he said. He comes to the Grimes house every weekend to help Carl practice, and sure enough, the kid's playing better than half the kids who'd been playing baseball for years in no time.

Negan flirts with Rick constantly, and Rick shoots him down constantly, and that's how it goes for a good three months before finally, Negan convinces Rick to go on a date with him.

The two are very fucking different, but somehow, they work.

Weeks spent together become months and months become a year. Carl makes the baseball team, his fighting with Ron (As Negan had predicted) comes to a complete stop, the two mostly just ignoring each other entirely now, and Carl's grades seem to get better when he joins the baseball team. Rick, not having to scold Carl for anything nearly as much, is more than relieved. He and Carl grow even closer than they were before and can now hold a full on conversation without it turning into a major argument.

Negan spends more nights with Rick than he does in his own home. The two open up to one another, Rick telling Negan all about the hardships he's faced in recent years, being a divorced cop with a crazy ex-best friend, and Negan tells Rick all about his rough upbringing, use of drugs, and his now dead wife, Lucille.

They argue, quite frequently, but they always make up in the end. They're both well aware of the fact that they weren't made for each other. They both know that their polar opposites and that because of that, they'll probably never stop bickering like fucking teenagers. They stress each other out, and they have such different personalities that seem to clash more often than not, but somehow...They work.

Rick needs Negan to help him let loose sometimes. He likes to be in control, but being in control all the time is stressful and it can drive a person insane, so, even though sometimes he hates to hand over the torch, when he just can't be in charge anymore, Negan is there to take over for him.

Negan needs Rick to tell him to calm the hell down sometimes. Negan can't afford to be wild and reckless all the time, not anymore, and Rick still lets him have his fun, but he does a good job of making sure he doesn't have **too** much fun. He mellows the older man out and vice versa.

So, yeah, they probably shouldn't be together. They probably don't belong together. They should probably reconsider this whole dating thing, but it's kind of a little bit too late for that.

Negan figures that much as he stares at the ring in his hand, in absolute awe of it. It's an expensive looking ring, a humongous diamond smack dab in the center of it, and it's even engraved. Someone had obviously lost it, as it'd just been lying on the sidewalk, almost hidden by some grass, but not quite.

It makes him think.

Maybe he thinks a little too much because soon enough his legs are carrying him back toward what is now he and Rick's house. He storms inside, determination written all over his face, and shouts for Rick to get his pretty little ass into the living room.

He shows up seconds later, looking flustered and worried as usual, and Carl follows in his tracks, looking unamused and pissy, again, as usual. Negan doesn't mind an audience, so, he lets the kid stay.

"I love you, you love me, I found this ring and it made me realize that I love you enough that I'd be willing to give you a ring and I'd marry the shit out of you." He shrugs his shoulders, watching as Rick's eyes widen and he steps a little closer.

"You got me a ring?"

"Well, no." Negan shakes his head. "I mean, if you want to keep it you can, but I found it on the sidewalk and whoever lost it is gonna be pissed. I planned on taking it back where I found it, but if you like it—"

"You stole my dad a ring? Dude, that's kind of cute. I wonder if Enid would like—"

" **Carl, no**." Rick growls. "No stealing."

Carl grumbles something to himself but doesn't argue.

"Negan...What are you getting at?"

"This isn't a proposal, but one day there will be one. One day soon, maybe."

Rick nods, grins at Negan and gives him a hug. Negan is happy to know that Rick doesn't mind him proposing.


End file.
